Thursday, November 22, 2012

Thanks Giving

As I contemplate the end of November, the immanent closing of the year ~ the only place to arrive at is GRATITUDE. No matter how I complain, finally, Gratitude is the soil, the enzyme, the only appropriate medium to plant any seed in. And the tide that takes us to sea as well......

This is what life does. It lets you walk up to the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have your eggs, your coffee. Then it sits a fisherman down beside you at the counter who says, "Last night, the channel was full of starfish." And you wonder,is this a message, finally, or just another day?

Life lets you take the dog for a walk down to thepond, where whole generations of biological processes are boiling beneath the mud. Reedsspeak to you of the natural world: they whisper,they sing. And herons pass by. Are you old enough to appreciate the moment? Too old?There is movement beneath the water, but it may be nothing. There may be nothing going on.

And then life suggests that you remember the years you ran around, the years you developeda shocking lifestyle, advocated careless abandon,owned a chilly heart. Upon reflection, you aregenuinely surprised to find how quiet you havebecome. And then life lets you go home to thinkabout all this. Which you do, for quite a long time.

Later, you wake up beside your old love, the onewho never had any conditions, the one who waitedyou out. This is life’s way of letting you know thatyou are lucky. (It won’t give you smart or brave,so you’ll have to settle for lucky.) Because you were born at a good time. Because you were able to listen when people spoke to you. Because youstopped when you should have and started again.

So life lets you have a sandwich, and pie for yourlate night dessert. (Pie for the dog, as well.) And then life sends you back to bed, to dreamland, while outside, the starfish drift through the channel, with smiles on their starry faces as they headout to deep water, to the far and boundless sea.